Chapter 22: …or not.

"...but we have work to do at the moment, My Lord. So, I intend to tell you about myself after we finish with our work here in the village."

Says Erevain while putting her night wear on, it looks hot even if she isn't doing it on purpose, especially now that she is putting her garter belt and stockings on.

You thigh connoisseurs must thank and praise me for this fanservice!

"...very well..."

Still…

MY EXPECTATIONS!!

MY FLASHBACK!!

IT WAS SO CLOSE...!

I WANTED TO SEE THE FLASHBACK EPISODE THAT WAS TOTALLY NOT FOR PADDI—PROLONGING THE CURRENT VILLAGE ARC!!!

"*chuckle*..."

Wait, did Erevain just chuckle?! I do a double take on her and I see her covering her mouth with the back of her right hand.

"I apologize, My Lord. It is just that I did not know how much you were looking forward to hearing my story, and your expression just now reminded me of someone..."

Her tone is obviously nostalgic. I mean she is doing the whole 'looking at somewhere far away' thing right now.

Hmmm...judging by that surprising reaction of hers I bet she is talking about someone of her family. Maybe a sister?

"Worry not, it was not as if I was that excited about it or anything..."

I say so while turning my head to the left and crossing my arms....

WHY?!! THIS DAMN INVOLUNTARY TSUNDERISM OF MINE!! WAS I ALWAYS LIKE THIS DEEP DOWN?! AAAAHH!!!!

"Is that so, My lord?"

She doesn't believe me at all. Her smile right now is basically telling me that.

"*ahem* A-Anyway, let's start with the reports then."

"Yes, My Lord."

She lightly bows and takes some pieces of paper that were on the table of this room and gives them to me. I say paper, but it is more of the equivalent of it in this world, it is not pure white and looks more like that eco-friendly light brown paper you see at some office supplies shops. I wonder of what it is made of here.

I'm willing to risk it and say it is related to magic, but don't believe me it’s just one of my crazy assumptions.

Huh? The handwriting on two of them is the same while on the third one is different and I'm just skimming through them, I can see that both have some good vocabulary, but the one in the first two is better. Going by this, I can say that Erevain wrote the first two and the last one was Luca, judging by the contents of it.

Even so I'm still going to 'ask'.

"You wrote these two, right Erevain?"

She looks a bit surprised by my comment. Heh, that is why I had to ask.

"Yes, I did. But how did My Lord know?"

"Simple, your rich and well-educated vocabulary. Although, Luca's is not lacking either."

"I see, as expected. My Lord's knowledge of our language and its intricacies is deep enough to reach that conclusion."

She nods while doing a prideful expression.

I feel a bit bad about that, since it’s because of my blessing that I can understand what is written here and even talk to her. Oh well, being OP sure is convenient.

"Enough about that Erevain, lets discuss about this off-limits area in the nearby forest."

A barrier, robed persons, a black mineral that releases miasma. My instinct is telling me that it is absolutely related to the village's problems and my isekai knowledge tells me that there's an event there that will totally advance the plot by teasing its relation to something way bigger.

"My Lord, may I suggest you clothe yourself first?"

Says Erevain with an embarrassed face while trying not to look. She is even blushing a bit.

Ah yes, I'm nude right now.

It's feels almost no different than wearing my bodysuit, so I forgot about that for a moment. Hehe.

But come on! After all the things you did to me, you are embarrassed by me being naked?!

Even if you are making that beautiful and pure maiden-like face now! I know the truth!!!

But oh well, I'll listen to her and cover myself with my tight bodysuit...

Four panels of fanservice later...

"There."

"You have my thanks, My Lord."

She lets out a sigh of relief. Seriously, this bodysuit is almost no different to me being nude, but it seems to work for her.

"Back on topic then, the off-limits area and the miasma releasing black mineral. What are your thoughts Erevain?"

"This mineral might be the one responsible for the sudden and unnatural death of the cattle and fields in the village. Luca mentions in her report that the trees that were closer to the people extracting the mineral and the mineral itself were decaying abnormally and that the soil near the crevice was dead looking, dry. If we cross-reference that with the statement of one hunter that Kris obtained, I think it solidifies this theory."

Says Erevain wearing a focused expression, gone was the pure maiden and the serious right-hand woman was in.

"What did the hunter say?"

I ask while reading Luca's report once more. She really wrote everything in great detail, it's almost as if I was actually holding a picture of the place, instead of reading it. Her memory must be great for her to be able to do something like this.

I need to reward her. I can imagine her expression when I tell her...hehe so cute...

"He and his dog were chasing a three-horned deer when their prey entered the off-limits zone. He immediately stopped in his tracks, but his dog kept chasing it. After a half an hour the dog came back seemingly normal and without the deer, but the dog died when the sun came down that day. The dog's corpse showed a once strong hunting dog turned into one that looked as if it had starved to death. Just like the cattle."

Says Erevain looking at me with expectant eyes. She wants to hear my thoughts too but first...

Poor doggy...I shall avenge you!!

Now, I agree with Erevain, this pretty much seems to be the thing responsible for the problems in this village, but that only answers part of the how, although I already have a theory that my instinct is telling me that is right.

"It is as you say Erevain, the black mineral is the weapon the ones responsible for all of this used to strike at the villager's necks. Although, it does not explain how it came here. And I trust what you told me about this village's age, so the idea of it being right under the village all along and for it to start showing its effects only now is not viable."

Before continuing, I shift my gaze for a moment to the window and the vista outside of it, a vista of a village that has clearly been here for a long time.

"If there was a large deposit of it right under the village, then this village wouldn't be here to begin with. The water of the wells would kill both the crops and cattle since it would be polluted with the mineral and that is not happening. Add to that the dead soil and no one would be able to even grow crops here in the first place, let alone live here. Reading Kris' report, she did ask about other hunting dogs and those are fine even though they drink water from the well too. "

"Indeed, My Lord."

"I do have a theory about this, though. If I am right, then whoever is responsible is using a powdered, diluted version of the mineral and spreading it only on the fields and the cattle's foodstuffs. But that also implies that they are doing it with enough care to not spread its effects to the villagers themselves. And it also raises the question of how they are handling the mineral. Or could it be that its effects are only useful against plants and animals but not the humanoid races? Those questions can only be answered if we study the mineral ourselves. As such, we need to inspect that off-limits area first thing in the morning."

I bet I am making a serious expression right now and that is because my instinct is telling me that if we do not go there, things will get dangerous. And even after deciding that we are going, the bad feeling just diminishes a bit, but it doesn't disappear completely...

Tell me if that is not some ominous foreshadowing. And Erevain noticing this expression of mine seems to have understood the urgency of the situation and nodded.

"As you wish, My Lord. Also, My Lord's theory of someone trying to make the villagers abandon the village instead of killing them, seems be the correct one. Specially with what Gabrielle mentioned in her report. An old woman found something that almost got her killed by the forces of our opponent in this village, although she managed to kill her assailant. As for the object she found, it was a rock, or better said, a gemstone that glows light blue. Our enemy probably suspects that there is more of it in, or under, this village and wants to take it in a quiet way."

I raise an eyebrow when I hear that exact choice of words for the color and then I start reading Gabrielle's report with haste and thanks to my nerd level being maxed out, I reached the important part quickly, finding at the end of it the name of the gemstone. My eyes widen as I read it.

I mean who wouldn't?

"...the Goddess' blood?!"

To be continued...(cue me crying over doggy's death...I'M SORRY!!! YOU WERE A GOOD BOY!!! I'M SORRY!!!!)